A Wild Time
by Shadow-Nightfall
Summary: A multi-crossover : TDiR, Labyrinth, Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon, Harry Potter. Wild magic runs rife and creates a few problems (and naturally the villians profit from this). Set roughly 5 years after Sarah runs the Labyrinth.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is a multi-crossover : fandoms are The Dark is Rising, The Labyrinth, Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and Harry Potter. I've tried to align the timelines. I'm aiming for it to be in 1990 or 1991. I'm also just making it up as I go along _

_Huntercomb, England, night of the winter solstice_  
The children having grown and moved out from the family home, Alice and Roger Stanton had moved from the Old Vicarage where the two of them rattled around in empty space that had once, years ago, been filled with noise.  
Having lived most of their lives in Huntercomb, Alice and Roger had choosen to remain and found a nice house, whose size was more adapted to that for an old couple, in the old village center though Huntercomb was not so much a village anymore.  
Their youngest, Will, currently stood before the low front gate and looked at the stars. Few could be seen, for despite being winter and a new moon, it was still only seven-thirty in the evening and while London was about twenty-five miles away, the light pollution generated from the capital still interfered with star gazing.  
Bringing his gaze back down from the heavens, he rang the gate bell. A few minutes later, the front door opened and his father shuffled out, accompanied by shouts of 'Happy Birthday!' by the more boisterous of his siblings present.

_Halatte Forest (Oise), France, __night of the winter solstice_  
The cold night air between the two great stones known as the Menhirs des Indrolles shimmered and wavered like a mirage though none saw or it or heard that part of the forest suddenly fall unnaturally silent. The noctural animals had quickly vanished to hunt elsewhere and no human was foolish enough to be in the dark forest at night, especially not during the longest night of the year.  
Slowly the shimmering resolved into riders and hunting dogs. The shimmering and wavering vanished as the last of a score of mounted forms appeared and the musical notes of an unearthly hunting filled the air. Then in one mighty rush, the host lept into the air to race over the forest towards the north. The Wild Hunt was abroad.

_Somewhere in the States, __night of the winter solstice_  
In a fantasy themed amusement park in the States, a portal opened and five strangely dressed teenagers and a child staggered out, finally free from the Realm alive with wild magic. With the closing of the portal, the weapons of power dulled and became lifeless. It was night and no one saw the adolescents arrive and then make their way slowly out of the park and to the only remaining car in the car park, the teenager dressed as a ranger sliding a key into the car door with trembling hands.

_Somewhere in the States, __night of the winter solstice_  
Back for a brief respite from university for the Christmas holidays, Sarah Williams found herself alone with her little brother in the old Victorian house where she had grown and where she had wished away her brother. Her parents were out at some company Christmas dinner and her six year old brother was playing computer games in the lounge room downstairs. Sitting before her vanity, she stared at the mirror and said softly, "Hoggle, I need you.."

Goblin Kingdom, The Underground  
In a castle in the Underground, the Words resounded thoughout summoning the goblins and their king to the Above to collect a Wished Away.

Actions have consequences and through a series of coincidences at the wrong - or perhaps right - time, pure wild magic raged through the world.  
For the barest fraction of a second reality blinked. Electronic instruments ran between static and working normally.

In Scotland, a castle suddenly appeared instead of an abandoned mine and just as suddenly disappeared. Alone in an empty office, a phoenix lifted its head tasting the wild magic, a magic so different to that normally in the castle.

Returning home alone in his small appartment after a birthday celebration, Will Stanton suddenly jerked rigid, his Old One senses taking command for the first time in years, questing for the disturbance.

From its place of banishment, Outside of Time, the heart of the Dark stirred, took note.. and waited.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Reality blurred.

Night of the winter solstice  
With neither rhyme nor reason, any city dwelling non magical humans who happened to glance around stared at a giant stone maze or floating pinnacles faintly superimposed over streets busy with cars. It was hard to tell if the sky was blue or orange.

Reality blinked.

In the cities, everything appeared normal and elsewhere a five-headed dragon disappeared.

There are many legends about the Wild Hunt. Some say the hunters are Faerie, some say it's led by Herne, some that's Arthur. Who can say? None who have witnessed the Hunt and managed to remain on the mundane plane speak of it least attention be drawn to themselves.

The Hunt thundered on, sometimes in the air, sometimes on the ground but somehow always accompanied by the drumming hoofbeats of many horses and the baying of hounds. In the countryside, everywhere the Hunt went, dogs and Crups barked and whined wildly, straining chains or retreating to shelter to hide. Free roaming animals and the weary, unwary traveller a foot or astride horse, first heard the dogs then something like honking geese before being overtaken by unreasoning terror and running wildly as far their panic and body would allow them.

Night of the winter solstice  
In the Forbidden Forest the centaurs gathered to read the stars.  
"Canes Venatici* are clear tonight," one remarked.  
"The Scales are broken," another replied, the Libra constellation partially concealed by a small cloud.

A short distance away, at the top of one of Hogwarts towers, Sybil Trelawney's eyes took on a glazed look as she spoke a prophecy. It being night and she being a recuse, she was in her chambers at that moment and so no body heard it. Not even a house elf. Such a pity.

Halatte Forest (Oise), France, night of the winter solstice  
Reality blinked. Just for the fraction of a second but it was enough for in that moment, the banished Dark concentrated all its powers on that hairline fracture. Something ceded and slowly, between the menhirs still slightly humming with magic, a black mist oozed back into the world. It seeped through the trees, at first thin and formless, insubstanial as mist is want to be, and spread over several kilometers. Gradually it vaguely took a wavering hourglass shape before beginning to condense and take on humanoid and horse forms.

The humanoids, too few, was his first conscious thought in this new form, took on more human appearances, flickering as they first took on familiar faces like a favourite suit, to then abandon those faces for new, unknown ones. One first appeared as a homely farm woman before her soft features became sharper and younger, blue eyes and dark hair becoming hazel and light brown. While he couldn't see himself, he knew that he too was flickering, a blue eyed redhead.. he concentrated for a moment. His hair and eyes changing to brown. He grimaced a bit, very ordinary and he'd never really liked that. Still, his white teeth glinted ferally in the darkness, it would not do to alert the enemy.

He stretched his tall frame, after the years of banishment, not really long at all for an immortal and yet somehow managing to seeming like forever, how it thrilled him to again have flesh and blood form!  
He glanced around idly. The black mist was now all gone, replaced with fully solid riders clad in all black or all white clothing and cloaks and matching mounts.  
"Headquarters," he said and they all vanished. It was time to plan and recruit.

Somewhere in the States, night of the winter solstice  
Shortly after the teenagers had snuck out of the amusement park, a second portail, this one caused by wild magic running amok, opened in the same spot, depositing a confused and rather annoyed five-headed dragon. Tiamat roared and turned to renter the portal only to find that it had closed. Enraged, she started destroying the surrounds. Kiosks caved in as and rides collapsed before the great dragon calmed herself enough to stop and extend her senses to search out magical sources. There was a source nearby and a more powerful one further away. With a leap, the dragon took to the skies and headed towards greater of the two.

Reality stabilised.

At first, these events when unnoticed by the wizarding world. It is after all, even if awake, harder to notice the strange and wonderful when you are used to it and few mundanes spoke to another about them, brushing it off as working too hard or simply refusing to believe what they had seen. But eventually the event horizon is crossed.

The Wizarding world, in particular that of Europe, lands rife with legends, ran around frantically once the new day dawned trying to contain sightings and restore the statute of secrecy.

And an assortment of denizens from different magical Realms and demi-planes found themselves stranded on the material plane.

MACUSA building, downtown NYC, morning after the winter solstice  
Agents and staff of MACUSA's Major Investigation Department were having a bad morning. As well as the usual contraventions and misuse of magic for a solstice night, the real-time hex indication map had registered two major magic disturbances during that last night, and more disconcerting yet, the said disturbances were very close to each other. The agents dispatched to the two locations had still to find the cause or causes. The agents investigating - the more experienced said that it was a non-maj place called an amusement park - were particularly distressed by the sight of what appeared to be giant claw marks, probably they surmised, of draconic origin. They were confused by faint after smell of some sort of gas and partly frozen buildings, particularly since the ice could clearly be determined to be magical. The buildings on fire on the other had were less of mystery since many dragons and magical creatures could breath fire. They called in Department for Protection of Magical Species to confirm their findings.  
The other team wasn't faring much better. Their site was.. an ordinary non-maj house. There was a very faint magical trace, but its origin couldn't be acertained. The only thing that could be determined was that it was created neither by wand nor potion. The house was confirmed by the HQ to only house non-maj. No non-maj born in it or even in the area. None of the house's inhabitants could recall anything unusual having happened and no Obliviation spells could be detected. The team exited and left completely baffled. A short distance away, in an evergreen tree and hidden by foliage, a male barn owl and restless shadows watched the agents' coming and going.

MACUSA building, downtown NYC, early afternoon of the day after the winter solstice  
All of the departments of the MACUSA were having an even worse afternoon. The morning had been stressful enough. Then .. a huge, weird looking dragon appeared in downtown New York and quickly smashed into the MACUSA building.  
The building shook, dust fell from ceilings, and sometimes debris. All experienced Aurors and agents from the departments for Protection of Magical Species and the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation ran to try and subdue the rampaging creature.  
"Five-heads?!"  
"What in Merlin's Name?!  
Spells flew from wands, the combined spellfire had a little effect upon the dragon. It roared. The windows shook and then the unthinkable occured.  
A deep, reverbating hiss issued from the dragon's red head "Puny humans!"

A/N : Canes Venatici* the hunting dogs constellation.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Somewhere in the USA, about a half hours drive from the amusement park, night of the winter solstice.  
Sarah hadn't been able to contact Hoggle, or any of her underground friends. At first her vanity's mirror had seemed to react as it normally would but then it had suddenly become inert. She'd tried again later that night but the mirror still remained unresponsive. She'd even locked herself in the shared bathroom to try the mirror there to no avail. She'd gone to bed somewhat disppointed and vowing to try again the following morning. The morning however brought unexpected bad news and the rethinking of plans drove all thoughts of the Underground from her head.

Morning after the night of the winter soltice  
Sarah half stumbled from the bathroom to the kitchen downstairs. Rather unfortunately a cold water face wash had only slightly woken her up and she really wanted coffee.  
Her Step-Mother, Karen, was already up and upon seeing Sarah, poured her some freshly brewed coffee which Sarah gratefully accepted. Now twenty, half-way half way through a part-time Bachelors of Commerce degree, living off campus near the university and working casual hours in a local supermarket to help pay her way, Sarah Williams had grown up. After that fateful night at the age of fifteen, she had starting making an effort to be nicer to her step-mother and Karen had responded in kind. While the relationship between the two of them was neither best-friend nor mother-daugther, they now accepted each other's place in the family.

Sarah went and sat down at the kitchen table, nursing her mug between sips. Karen, glancing at the clock, turned on the radio to listen to the news before joining her Step-Daughter at the table.  
"You're listening to your local Station 105.8 and this is Mason Brown with the 7 o'clock news. Last night a fire ravenged the Looneyland amusement park destroying five rides, two of which were the Ferris Wheel and the Dungeons and Dragons toboggan coaster. Experts are currently investigating but have yet to determine the cause of the fire. ."  
Sarah tuned out the rest.  
She'd told her parents that she was planning on taking Toby to Looneyland either a few days before or after Christmas but now that plan had, quite literally, gone up in flames. She was at a loss about what to do. Glancing about her to make sure that Toby wasn't around, she turned to Karen and said, "You know Karen, I was planning on taking Toby to that amusement park as a Christmas present but now... " she trailed off  
Karen sighed. "I know. He's been wanting to visit that park for ages."  
Sarah stared into space, thinking. It really was a pity about LooneyLand and couldn't think of another fun park in the area.. She frowned slightly. A vague memory tickled her mind.. there was one, further away, though she couldn't remember how far exactly, that did have a similar theme to LooneyLand.. what was the name? It was more recent than LooneyLand too..  
"Karen.." Sarah said, "isn't there another park near us? I think it opened about two or three years ago?"  
Karen considered. "That does sound vaguely familar. You don't remember the name?"  
Sarah frowned again. "No.. Fantasy something? No that doesn't sound right.. ". She was half talking to herself. "Something about a quest?.."  
"Oh!" Karen exclaimed. "Magical Quest or MagiQuest or something like that I think."  
Sarah got up and fetched the Yellow Pages business telephone directory. She opened to the index, and still half talking to herself "hmm, Amusement Park? Fun Park, Theme Park?" She tried looking for Amusement Parks. "advertising... appraisals...arbitrator.. ah, amusement parks, page 30!"  
She flipped to the front of the directory and started flickering pages while still muttering to herself "..10.. 15..25.. 30.." she looked up at Karen, "Something starting with Magic you said?"  
Her step-mother nodded. "I believe so."  
There were actually more Amusement Parks than Sarah had though. Or perhaps it only seemed that way since each had an ad, the smallest taking being a rectangle about 5 to 6 centimeters while most were a quarter to a half page in size.  
MagiQuest Amusement Park  
The ad was easy for her to find, it took up half the page.

Judging from the rides, it might be a slightly bigger park and closest town looked to be located about two hours drive from their theirs as opposed to LooneyLand's thirty to forty minute drive. From the ad, it seemed a more "magic and magical creatures" and "quest" themed park. Well, the "quest" part was only open to children aged up to ten; and billed as a "magical treasure hunt" with a little prize being given depending on how many 'treasures' were brought back to the start. According to the ad, the 'treasures' were only tokens that could be obtained from dedicated stands, each stand giving a different token, throughout the park.  
Still, gathering the 'treasures' might appeal to Toby as a time filler between ride fast pass time limits for the more popular attractions. There were also apparently various 'statues' of mythical creatures were children could have their photo taken "riding" them. That would probably appeal to him too and might make up for him being too under the minimum required height for some of the more adventurous rides. She'd have to ring them to get more details.

Somewhere in the USA, about a half hours drive from the amusement park, mid-morning after the night of the winter soltice  
The owl still sat in the same tree, pondering.  
For the first time in a long, long time, Jareth didn't make the effort to remember when exactly, the taking of a Wished-Away by the goblins and their King had failed. He and the goblins could return to the Kingdom empty handed, nothing would prevent them from doing so as he could feel a slight pull towards the Underground. He'd quickly realised that he was not obligated to though. He had been summoned and even if they somehow couldn't take the Wished-Away, at least for the time being, the summons was still in force. A strange situation. Though perhaps he thought, whatever had and was still preventing taking the Wished-Away was only temporary. And so he continued to perch on the branch.

The robed humans had gone and while he sensed the touch of magic upon them, they seemed completely oblivious to himself and his goblins.  
It had been some time since the Goblin King had been outside, Above, though sometimes he come and perch in a tree just outside _her_ bedroom. The magical humans must be the wizards his Above subjects had told him about.  
About five centuries past, he'd recalled many of his Above subjects back to the kingdom, they'd been somewhat uncooperative - something about a new venture they had just started - until he'd Bogged a number of them as an example not to defy him. They'd settled down after that. He'd really only let them return a century ago, once he no longer required their presence in his kingdom and had gotten tired of their endless petitions to the Crown for their return Above.

The sun gradually rose higher in the sky. People came out to check letterboxes. A church bell chimed. The occasional car hummed up or down the street. Here and there, a person was walking down the street. His owl head swiveled. He hadn't been paying much attention to his surrounds, beyond the basics of not-being-seen, when he'd answered the summons. Nor later while watching the magical humans but now that he was, the area seemed vaguely familiar. He fluffed his feathers. It was probably just the row of old, rambling houses. The shadows stirred, restless.  
What to do, what to do?

Footsteps sounded directly under his tree as a middle aged woman with short blond hair walked underneath his perch. A small blond boy, probably around five or six, belted past her, tearing down the footpath in front of her. "Toby!" she called out and the child, now a decent distance away from them, stopped, turned and belted back towards them.  
The boy, Toby, ran rings around the woman.  
He tilted his head and body downwards to better peer at them through the leaves. A slight breeze rustled and the leaves and the boy looked up.  
"Hey! Look mum, an owl!"  
The woman glanced around briefly, not really interested.  
The boy stood on tip toe, trying his best to get a better look. "It looks just like the one that hangs out in the tree outside Sarah's room."  
Jareth blinked as he recognised the names. Toby, Sarah.. His head swivelled towards the direction that they had come and to his surprise, he saw, five houses away, a young woman with long, dark hair taking the rubbish bin back towards the house. Well that explained why the area seemed familiar at least. He took flight.

Toby watched the owl, curious, as it flew a short way before landing in another tree. He stared. While he couldn't see the owl now, the tree that it had landed in was the one in their yard near his sister's room.  
"Mum.." Toby looked around, half in a panic when he didn't see her.  
He heard his mother call his name and saw her further up the footpath. She had continued on the way to the town and he ran to catch up to her, chattering at her.

Once Karen and Toby had returned from their trip to the town, she and Sarah broke the news to Toby about LooneyLand. Toby was of course devastated about not being able to go. He interrupted Sarah with "but you promised!"  
His father squeezed his shoulder.  
"Yes Toby," Sarah continued "which is why mum and dad are letting me take you to MagiQuest Park instead. It has similar rides, has a treasure hunt and you can get your photo taken with a dragon, and other creatures. Not real ones" she added hastily.  
He was still disappointed but perked up with that.  
And so, a couple of days after Christmas Day, found Sarah and Toby on the way to MagiQuest Amusement Park in Sarah's old Ford.


End file.
